Chapter 146: Pandemonium of Demons

The Huida University branch campus was still the very same Huida University branch campus.

The school was quiet. The cafeteria, the snack bar, and the athletic fields that used to bustle with people were now completely deserted. Evidently, the school administration had remodeled the campus during the period they were away. While the overall structure remained largely unchanged, many of the soft furnishings and sculptures had been replaced with items carrying an intensely cultivation-oriented aesthetic. Crimson ropes and strings of copper coins were strung haphazardly between the trees, from which dangled bright yellow talisman papers. Anyone wandering in here without prior knowledge would mistake it for some sort of Taoist academy.

Qin Ye sneaked in, cowering behind a sculpture of a swordsman soaring on a flying sword, with his destination set: the instructor dormitory building, five hundred meters away.

The plan: rush into the dormitory like a mad dog with blinding speed.

The objective: ensure no one noticed the suitcase he was lugging.

His left hand clung to the sculpture while his right hand gripped the suitcase. His Adam’s apple bobbed repeatedly, and a sheen of sweat coated his brow.

A paper crane fluttered down lightly onto Qin Ye's shoulder, and Arsaces’s disdainful voice rang out: "Isn't it just going home? Why are you acting like invading Japanese soldiers entering a village? Is it really necessary? This Palace has been watching you dawdle here from the window for a full ten minutes."

"What the hell do you know?" Qin Ye gently patted the suitcase, saying with a dreamy tone, "Have you ever seen a treasure worth over a million US dollars? There are too many eyes and ears in the dorms, caution is paramount."

The paper crane raised a wing and picked a non-existent nostril: "Back when This Palace's palace was still standing, a mere hundred million was just loose change."

Qin Ye fell silent.

Why was communicating with a nouveau riche so difficult? Why bring up the good old days out of the blue? Wasn't this hurting their friendship?

Only when the surrounding area cleared did he straighten up, give a light cough, and, appearing to walk normally while actually moving at breakneck speed, dash into the dormitory.

He had no choice; he felt like a glowing target of covetous desires every single second. There were always treacherous scumbags out to get him...

Hoo... Just as he rounded the corner, a tall figure suddenly lunged out, spreading its arms wide: "Surprise!!"

Thud! A haymaker slammed straight into the source of the surprise.

Wang Chenghao clutched his stomach in agony and doubled over, opening his mouth to speak but swallowing the words back. He looked pitifully at Qin Ye, clutching his midsection and gagging dryly.

Qin Ye panted, his heart still pounding from the shock. Surprise your sister! He had spent all that effort crawling forward stealthily just to be greeted by love at the corner—his soul had practically flown right out of his body!

"If you ever pop up out of nowhere like that again, watch out or I'll throw you straight out the window!" Glaring fiercely at the other man, Qin Ye instinctively pulled out his keys to open the door. Wang Chenghao stood behind him, rubbing his head. The exact moment the door unlocked, Qin Ye suddenly snapped back to his senses, slammed the door shut, and glared at Wang Chenghao standing behind him: "What are you doing?"

Wang Chenghao blinked, looking baffled.

Just dropping by your place for a visit, what do I need to be doing... No... What are *you* doing? Or what do you want *me* to do?

Playing it safe amidst this bizarre conversation, his mouth twitched as he said with difficulty, "Following the tropes of a domineering CEO romance novel, shouldn't my line right now be: 'Do it'?"

Qin Ye silently grabbed him by the neck and spun him around: "Just like this, walk straight, go downstairs, turn left, see the library? Then keep walking straight and you'll see your dorm. Now get the hell out, and don't expect thanks."

"I..."

Qin Ye shoved Wang Chenghao three meters away, ignoring the man's resentful gaze, carefully cracked open a gap, and zipped inside like a flash of lightning.

Bang, the main door clicked shut.

"Holy crap..." Qin Ye pressed his back flat against the door, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, and then cast an intensely hostile glare at the uninvited biological specimen sitting on his bed.

That was a silicone body.

The workmanship was quite exquisite, which would have been normal enough, right?

What wasn't normal was that the thing was lounging on his bed, holding a laptop in its left hand and a mouse in its right, while raging furiously: "This fucking daycare center! I knew nine out of ten Yasuo players are trolls! Too cowardly to even kick back! I'm reporting them the moment the match ends, stop throwing the game, for crying out loud!"

Scattered across the bed were several open bags of potato chips and jelly—he couldn't even begin to imagine how they got there. There was even a box of Always sanitary pads, alongside a collection of Triumph bras ranging from cup size A to D...

Qin Ye swallowed hard, walking over to the bed with great difficulty: "I can sort of understand the Triumph bras... But can you explain why there's a box of sanitary pads here?"

Arsaces had just finished a match, efficiently clicked the report button, and cracked her knuckles—her ten milky-white silicone fingers intertwining—before giving Qin Ye an elegant side-eye: "A woman's things, what do you know?"

"...I don't know... What the hell I understand even less is why a silicone woman who doesn't even have periods would buy this damn thing?!"

Arsaces shyly dragged a hand across her jawline: "Experiencing what it feels like to be a woman... Is that not allowed?"

Qin Ye collapsed in despair onto the sofa, burying his face deep in his hands.

What do you do when the husky at home is too destructive? Asking online, it's quite urgent.

A restricted zone.

Starting today, his room was an absolute restricted zone!

Once anyone laid eyes on the current state of affairs here...

"Oh? Not bad, huh? Quite a unique hobby you've got." "Impressive... You don't look like someone who struggles to find a girlfriend, though. Youth... youth is truly something..." "Fellow Daoist Qin, care to explain this Triumph bra? A cross-dressing bigwig? I think we could have a deep discussion about this..."

It was simply bone-chilling!

"Oh, by the way." Ignoring Qin Ye's despair entirely, Arsaces casually tossed over a mirror: "Elder Bright Mirror has something for you."

Qin Ye caught the mirror reflexively. Before he even had a chance to look at it, a torrent of furious abuse erupted: "Are you out of your fucking mind, you moron?! How many times have I told you to take your old man here with you when you go down to the Underworld! Last time you went, you actually forgot this mirror on the bed? Were you in a rush to get reincarnated or attend a funeral?! Didn't your father ever teach you how to treat the elderly with respect?!"

Right... there was also this toxic critic...

Qin Ye banged his head rhythmically against the sofa: Thud, thud, thud. Why wasn't he passing out? Why was he still so painfully lucid? Could there please be even a single normal person around him? Every single one of them was more bizarre than the last!

His dorm was basically a gathering of demons and monsters dancing in chaos... And this was right in the core of the First Cultivation University, the kind of environment where you could lose your life any minute!

"Let's make a deal, shall we?" A few seconds later, he sat up, trying his best to look calm: "Right now I'm operating undercover deep in the mortal realm dealing with nether spirits. If you lot don't want me to die young and achieve transcendence prematurely, could you tone it down a bit?"

Arsaces let out a yawn: "Rest assured, This Palace knows where to draw the line. But as for you, bring Ming Shiyin down with you next time you go."

"Hold on... did I hear that right? Just now you said... Ming who? Did you bloody well go playing Honor of Kings behind my back again?!"

"I'm warning you, you little turd of a mirror, familiarity doesn't give you the right to throw random labels around, I can still sue you for defamation!"

Arsaces waved a hand irritably: "Such poor character. I just happened to bring it back from Mount Dai the other day, and listening to this toxic critic all day long is driving This Palace crazy. Back in its supreme treasure form, I might have given it three points of respect, but now a mere Wuchang-tier item dares to pull seniority rank in front of This Palace every single day. If it weren't still somewhat useful, I'd have sent it to meet God in a heartbeat."

"What the fuck did you just call me, you little tart, say it again?! See if I don't jump right off this ledge and drag you down with me in mutual destruction!"

Qin Ye massaged his temples, a headache throbbing behind his eyes: "Aren't you afraid it'll flip the Underworld upside down?"

With that kind of explosive temper...

Arsaces turned around, her smile fading as she said gravely: "This Palace isn't well-versed in Underworld architecture, but I do know one thing. Any nether territory, even the Underworld, has regions where nether energy is denser than others. Commonly known as Lands of Extreme Yin."

"And all structures in the Underworld can only be built upon Lands of Extreme Yin. Ordinary ground cannot support the construction of special buildings." She cast a sideways glance at the Bright Mirror High-Hanging: "I have to admit, only Ming Shiyin can spot such places. Furthermore, every nether spirit that reaches the Ghost Gate Pass will have its true form reflected. It... is the Underworld's three-foot-long bright mirror, making it impossible for any unclean entity to possibly sneak into the Underworld."

Qin Ye blinked, acutely seizing upon the crux of the matter: "Unclean entities? For example?"

"Other..." "Ming Shiyin!"

Before the Bright Mirror High-Hanging could finish, Arsaces cut it off. Characters were materializing frantically across the mirror's surface, about to unleash a tirade, but Arsaces slowly shook her head at it with a solemn expression.

"He's not ready to know these things yet." She said flatly: "Ignorance breeds fearlessness. That's not meant as an insult."

Bizarrely, the Bright Mirror High-Hanging actually refrained from spewing abuse this time.

"Fine." Qin Ye looked suspiciously between the silicone body and the mirror: "Then... I'll take Ming Shiyin down with me next time."

At that exact moment, the door was suddenly pummeled with heavy knocks. Lin瀚's voice rang out: "Open up, the study materials have been sent out, didn't you check Momo? Do I need your dad to deliver them to you?"

With lightning speed, Qin Ye kicked Arsaces under the bed, prompting a volley of venomous curses from her. He scooped up the Triumph bra and sanitary pads in a single sweep, bundling them along with Ming Shiyin under the bed as well. The entire room's clutter was swept away into oblivion within five seconds, and he immediately smoothed his clothes and opened the door with a smile.

The door swung open, and Lin Han cast a suspicious glance around the reasonably tidy room. Was it his imagination? Hadn't he just heard a strange commotion from inside?

He held a black rectangular box resting on the fingertips of his four fingers, scanned the room for a long time, looked doubtfully at Qin Ye, and then walked right in with familiar ease. Underneath Qin Ye's twitching eyelid, Lin Han unceremoniously sat down... on the bed.

Didn't you see that I deliberately cleared out the sofa for you?!

Did you not have a clue what was lurking under that bed? That was Judge-da-la whom you just wanted to offer twenty-five-year-aged liquor to!

"The exchange list." Lin Han opened the box, crossed his legs, and pulled out a flash drive-like object from inside: "Master Zhou said the database is a bit large, and using remote transmission would waste too much time, so he sent it for everyone to install themselves. Oh, right, that stack of papers underneath is the confidentiality agreement; sign it and press your thumbprint. This stuff cannot be leaked, only formal instructors are privy to it..."

While Lin Han chattered away endlessly, Qin Ye's eyelids twitched wildly. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Arsaces stubbornly sticking out a single finger from beneath the bed. With lightning-fast reflexes, he planted his foot squarely on top of it and shot a glare downward: Behave yourself!

"Hmm?" Lin Han frowned and suddenly trailed off: "Did someone just let out a muffled grunt?"

Under the bed, Arsaces was grinding her teeth in fury: Of course someone did! It was This Palace!

Did you think silicone couldn't feel pain?!

"Was there? You must have heard wrong."